WHITE PAPER ACHIEVING CSIA CERTIFICATION - DMC, Inc. Papers/CSIA... · 2019-09-12 · DMC Chicago...

DMC Chicago • 2222 N. Elston Avenue Suite 200 • Chicago, IL 60614 • 312.255.8757

DMC Boston • 20 Holland St. Suite 408 • Somerville, MA 02144 • 617.758.8517

www.dmcinfo.com • [email protected] • 888.DMC.4400

WHITE PAPER

ACHIEVING CSIA CERTIFICATION

OVERVIEW

It can be difficult to assure current and potential clients that you run your business well. Moreover, if you are

honest with yourself, you know you could run your business better. It can be difficult as a controls system

integrator to find business best practices that apply to your specific operational challenges.

The Control Systems Integrators Association (CSIA; www.controlsys.org) was established to address the specific

business practices of controls system integrators. DMC (www.dmcinfo.com) became a certified member of CSIA in

April, 2009 to both receive recognition for having good business practices and continue to improve our

operations. In this whitepaper, the author discusses member certification and the reasons DMC pursued it;

general audit preparations and DMC’s specific strategies; and the results of DMC’s audit and next steps with CSIA.

CONTENTS

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................. 1

Contents .............................................................................................................................................................. 1

Introduction to CSIA ........................................................................................................................................ 2

Benefits of certification................................................................................................................................... 3

DMC and how we fit into CSIA .................................................................................................................... 4

Preparing for the Certification Audit ......................................................................................................... 4

Groundwork ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

Gathering the Evidence .................................................................................................................................. 5

The Audit and Beyond..................................................................................................................................... 9

Next Steps and Next Time ............................................................................................................................ 10

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................... 10

Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

INTRODUCTION TO CSIA

CSIA was founded in 1994 with the following mission: “to bring successful system integration to the marketplace

by creating recognition and demand for CSIA certified members; improving system integration best practices and

performance; and providing an industry forum and networking opportunities” (1). CSIA is “committed to the

business development of control system integration companies and their implementation of best practices” (1).

CSIA introduced its Best Practices and Benchmarks in 1997 (now in its third revision) to provide a “framework for

integrators to evaluate and continuously improve their own businesses” (2).

Contact DMC

312.255.8757

[email protected]

www.dmcinfo.com

Eric Anderson, Project Engineer, DMC 2/23/2010

http://www.dmcinfo.com/

mailto:[email protected]

www.controlsys.org

www.dmcinfo.com




WHITE PAPER


The Certified Member program was introduced in 2001. A certified member list can be found at

http://www.controlsys.org/about/registered_members.htm.

An integrator must meet the CSIA’s definition of an integrator (described below), “offer multi-vendor products for

non-exclusive sale”, achieve revenues of $600,000 for three years (and maintain this revenue), and attend two

CSIA Executive Conferences in a three-year period (3). Prospective members must pass a 3rd party audit and be

re-certified every three years.

The annual CSIA Executive Conference takes place in late April or early May (the next one is April 29-May 1, 2010

in Seattle, WA). Seminar topics in the past have included KPIs, ROI, PM, strategic planning, sales capacity, and the

future of plant automation (2). Presentation titles from the conference this year included “Five Secrets for a

Successful Banking Relationship,” “Lead Qualification: Follow-up on Sales Leads,” “Net Promoter Score: A Specific

Measurement of Customer Loyalty,” “Recession-Busting Market Opportunities,” and “CSIs Partnering with the

Automation Distributor.” This conference provides an opportunity to network with peer organizations, learn from

their experiences, and compare business practices and processes. DMC’s president has benefited greatly from

attending these conferences and has expressed his regret at not attending sooner.

Figure 1: DMC's President, Frank Riordan (on the right), networking at the Executive Conference Benefits of certification

BENEFITS OF CERTIFICATIONS

CSIA certification assures DMC’s clients that we are a “financially healthy company capable of completing projects

in a professional and technically sound manner”. The client knows that DMC, along with all other certified

members, has project management excellence, structured standards, a proven track record, and a culture of



http://www.controlsys.org/about/registered_members.htm




WHITE PAPER


service, capability, and ethics. Rather than a more generic certification, CSIA certification is focused on our

marketplace. (4)

The CSIA certified member list helps clients looking for system integrators to find DMC. DMC is one of only three

certified members in the Chicagoland area. DMC is able to display CSIA branding, pictured below, on our

marketing materials, providing credibility to clients that are unfamiliar with our services.

Figure 2: CSIA Certified Member Brand (4)

In addition to providing more business opportunities, CSIA provides resources to improve business procedures.

“The Best Practices and Benchmarks process serves as an ongoing ‘checks and balances’ tool that control system

integrators can use in a ‘self-deterministic’ fashion” (4). The Best Practices and Benchmarks address many critical

business areas including human resources and project, quality, financial, and technical management.

In addition to benchmarking against CSIA standards, networking opportunities, including the annual Executive

Conference, allow system integrators to compare their business procedures to those of other integrators.

Members can share solutions to management related problems and evaluate their own performance relative to

their peers. Networking through CSIA encourages accountability for following best practices and optimizing

business performance.

DMC AND HOW WE FIT INTO CSIA

CSIA defines a control system integrator as an “independent (or profit-loss division) value-added engineering

organization that focuses on industrial control and information systems, manufacturing execution systems, and

plant automation”, that has “application knowledge and technical expertise”, and provides an integrated solution

to an engineering problem. This solution includes “final project engineering, documentation, procurement of

hardware, development of custom software, installation, testing, and commissioning.”(5)

DMC is a consulting firm offering high-caliber engineering and software development services around Chicago

and around the world since 1996. Our core areas include manufacturing, test and measurement, custom

application development (for a variety of platforms), and SharePoint enterprise development. Our customers

include Argonne National Laboratory, Bosch, Fermilab, Solo, Underwriters Laboratory, and Yaskawa.






WHITE PAPER


DMC certainly meets CSIA’s definition of an integrator. DMC has a focus on industrial control and information

systems. The engineers at DMC apply a wealth of knowledge and expertise in areas such as vision systems,

motion control, software and database architecture, data acquisition, and signal processing. DMC specializes in

custom software and has been involved in all phases of a project including planning, design, implementation,

deployment, and testing.

Another reason DMC fits into CSIA is that the president is engaged, “wants his company to be the best in class”,

and “has the clout to take it there”. These are characteristics of a typical member company, according to CSIA. (6)

The president has been improving business practices long before considering CSIA certification. He has

implemented many initiatives to automatically track and then improve company metrics. DMC’s top executive

shares CSIA’s belief that “being a good system integrator goes hand in hand with operating a good business” (7).

PREPARING FOR THE CERTIFICATION AUDIT

GROUNDWORK

The first step in becoming a certified member is to become an associate member of CSIA-

www.controlsys.org/join.htm.

Besides the many great benefits described above, associate members have access to A Guide to the CSIA’s Best

Practices and Benchmarks, Third Revision (BP&B). This publication contains the requirements for certifications and

is essential for the auditing process. The newest edition of this guide (3.01, approved January 28, 2009) marks

those sections that are being audited at this time (8).

CSIA recommends treating certification as an internal project with a project manager who will delegate

assignments to those employees with expertise in specific areas of audit, such as financial management.

Assignments should have clear expectations and deadlines. (8) DMC’s president noted that distributing the effort

is essential to accomplishing certification. Otherwise, the process either becomes one person’s full-time job or is

never finished.

Setting a deadline was very important to kick-starting certification and keeping it on track. Once the auditing firm

was hired and scheduled, it was certification or bust. CSIA notes that the audit requires evidence that procedures

are being followed during several months of day-to-day operation (8). Often companies require 9 to 24 months

for preparations (9). For DMC, this evidence had already existed and the audit was scheduled for 2. months after

beginning preparations.

CSIA provides both an audit mentor program and audit preparation training program. For more information,

contact the CSIA Executive Director, Bob Lowe (www.controlsys.org/about/executive_board.htm).



http://www.controlsys.org/join.htm

www.controlsys.org/about/executive_board.htm




WHITE PAPER


There are two authorized auditors, Exotek (www.exotek.com) and American Systems Registrar (ASR)

(www.asrworldwide.com) (10). DMC hired ASR for no reason other than their availability to perform the audit

before the 2009 Executive Conference, which was DMC’s self-imposed deadline. ASR and Exotek provide optional

pre-audits that can highlight deficiencies and focus audit preparations. DMC did not have an external pre-audit

performed. Internal audits are, of course, highly recommended.

GATHERING THE EVIDENCE

CSIA provides a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to manage and track audit preparation progress-

www.controlsys.org/controlsysmembersonly/practices.htm (members only). It closely matches the audit report

created later by the auditor. It includes those sections of BP&B included in the audit and a description of each

section. There are fields for the certification project manager to assign a person to each section, set a completion

date, mark whether or not the section is complete, and list any additional actions are required. For use on the

audit day, there are fields to describe evidence of compliance with each section and the location of supporting

documents. (8)

Instead of using this spreadsheet directly, DMC converted it into a Microsoft SharePoint list. Microsoft SharePoint

is “an enterprise portal that allows users to share information, collaborate in the execution of business processes,

and aggregate information from multiple data sources.” SharePoint allows businesses to establish best practices

and make standard operating procedures (SOPs) easily accessible and editable through the use of Wikis. It can

also support decision making through the use of dashboards and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) views. (11)

SOPs and KPIs are items encouraged by CSIA.

A screen shot of the audit preparation SharePoint list is shown below. One advantage to using a SharePoint list is

the ability to concurrently edit the list instead of having to check-out the Excel spreadsheet when making

modifications. Each person involved with the audit preparations could asynchronously keep their assignment

information current so maintaining this list did not fall to the audit project manager.



www.exotek.com

www.asrworldwide.com

http://www.controlsys.org/controlsysmembersonly/practices.htm




WHITE PAPER


Figure 3: DMC SharePoint Audit Preparation List

The criteria number (far-left column) and section columns corresponds to the BP&B and the description was

taken from the audit preparation Excel spreadsheet. If a section needed additional preparation before the audit,

that section was assigned to an individual. The Status column corresponds to the score that would be given by

the auditor and contains a description of what that score means. This column represents DMC’s internal audit.

The 2009 Audit Score column is the audit score DMC actually received. In most cases, the internal audit value was

equal to or less than the actual value; being conservative on an internal audit is generally preferred.

The main link column usually contains a hyperlink to the SOP that documents a process to meet that particular

item. The ability to click-through to relevant documentation greatly simplified audit organization and facilitated

the audit evaluation. For example, for item number 1.4.6: “Does the integrator have a system of adequate backup

(every day, off-site storage, assigned person, rotated backup media)?”, the main link points to an SOP Wiki

entitled “Server Data Back Up Procedure.” A screenshot of this article is included below.






WHITE PAPER


Figure 4: SOP Wiki article demonstrating a data backup procedure

DMC has an extensive library of SOPs in the form of a Wiki. The library is centrally located and always accessible

on SharePoint. Keeping this documentation electronic prevents employees from using outdated hardcopies and

the wikis are easily editable, which simplifies keeping them up-to-date. A process has been defined for approval

of SOP updates by the management team. The library is searchable within itself and as a part of a general search

of our SharePoint site.

In addition to the SOPs, which document the official processes, the audit preparation SharePoint list includes

evidence of the B&BP items in day-to-day operations. Four representative projects were chosen and the use of

relevant items in those projects was described in each project’s column. Whenever possible, hyperlinks were

included to click-through to actual documents that resulted from following DMC’s SOPs. For example, for item

number 5.01.1: “Is the work done by the integrator contractually authorized?”, the main link points to an SOP

entitled “Customer PO Processing.” In the customer fields, the words here in blue text are hyperlinks to actual

documents related to this requirement- proposals and purchase orders.






WHITE PAPER


Figure 5: Audit Preparation Item showing links to supporting documentation

In the example below, there is some explanation of how the requirement was met on different projects with

customers that have different requirements. There are also links to documentation inside and outside of

SharePoint.






WHITE PAPER


Figure 6: Audit Preparation Item explaining specific examples and providing links to documentation

The audit preparation project manager was responsible for reviewing this list and ensuring each employee kept

the sections to which they were assigned current. A status update meeting was held every 1-2 weeks to discuss

the overall status and progress of preparations and make certain all areas were being covered.

THE AUDIT AND BEYOND

The audit takes a whole day. The auditor went through the audit item list and DMC discussed the process

evidence and day-to-day evidence with him. Each item in the auditor’s report had a corresponding item in the

SharePoint list and all evidence was just a click away. The auditor provided feedback on each item as it was

discussed and assigned each item a score.






WHITE PAPER


The auditor compiled the scores and additional overall comments into a CSIA Certification Audit Report. These

overall comments complemented DMC’s training of new employees in DMC’s operations; recruitment of new

employees that has led to high retention; high level of detail; use of computer tools to reduce paperwork and

project status confusion; and extensive use of SharePoint to document and retain contracts.

The auditor also compiled an Opportunity for Improvement Report. This report included four items. The first was

establishment of a timetable for reviewing the succession planning process. The second item was developing a

tool to track the number of project hours used versus the project percent complete, in order to identify projects

that are in trouble. The third item was a project event log to capture a daily project status. Items two and three

are currently being addressed as part of a SharePoint project status dashboard. The fourth item related to

customer survey results and a Prato analysis.

Businesses are assigned a level based on the number of personnel and amount of business, with each level

having a benchmark score. DMC is a level 2 business. DMC received an overall score of 245 and that exceeded

the benchmark score for our business level of 238. We met or exceeded benchmark scores in 6 of the 8 sections

of the B&BP.

NEXT STEPS AND NEXT TIME

As mentioned above, some specific opportunities for improvement identified by the auditor are currently being

addressed. DMC visits the benchmark list and performs an internal audit on a quarterly basis. This internal audit is

meant to increase the scores of items that are included in the audit and verify that other items in the B&BP are

handled appropriately. A CSIA team has also been formed to review compliance with the B&BP on a more regular

basis and report their finding to the entire company.

DMC is up for re-certification in 2012 and strives to improve our audit scores across the board. For the audit in

2012, DMC will follow a process very similar to the one described here. The project and resource management

surrounding DMC’s audit preparations was very efficient and the day of the audit ran very smoothly. DMC will be

enhancing and improving its use of SharePoint and even more evidence of process compliance and day-to-day

application will be contained there.

DMC’s president does regret waiting so long to pursue these initiatives. He wishes he would have become

involved with CSIA sooner in terms of attending the executive conferences and becoming certified.

CONCLUSION

Most companies claim to be world class organizations and believe they are doing things well. CSIA defines the

way a control system integrator should operate in order to be world class. This is defined through the Best






WHITE PAPER


Practices and Benchmarks, and expounded through the seminars and key-note addresses at the Executive

Conference.

The auditing process provides a third party evaluation of whether one’s company is running as a world class

organization should. DMC takes great pride in having its operations validated and DMC has a clear path towards

further improving its operations. DMC has not pursued CSIA membership as the end-goal but rather as the

means to becoming a great business. In addition to validation, DMC also appreciates the credibility CSIA

membership will provide in the marketplace. Now, those considering DMC’s services will be assured of the quality

of those services and DMC’s commitment to best practices.

If you are considering certification, do not hesitate in becoming a member of CSIA. You and your business will

benefit greatly from the knowledge and experience found within this association. DMC hopes you will benefit

from our experience in the auditing process and looks forward to meeting you. We would be happy to share

more about our work with CSIA generally or the certified membership process specifically.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Control System Integrators Association. Welcome to CSIA. Control System Integrators Association Web site.

[Online] Telesian Technology. [Cited: December 11, 2009.] http://www.controlsys.org/.

2. —. 15th Annual CSIA Executive Conference Recap. Control System Integrators Association Web site. [Online]

May 2008. [Cited: December 11, 2009.]

http://www.controlsys.org/news/documents/ConferenceRecap080521FINAL.doc.

3. —. Requirements. Control System Integrators Association Web site. [Online] [Cited: December 11, 2009.]

http://www.controlsys.org/join/apply_requirements.htm.

4. —. Registered Member Program. Control System Integrators Association Web site. [Online] Telesian Technology.

[Cited: December 11, 2009.] http://www.controlsys.org/about/regmem_program.htm.

5. —. About System Integrators. Control System Integrators Association Web site. [Online] Telesian Technology.

[Cited: December 11, 2009.] http://www.controlsys.org/about/system_integrators.htm.

6. —. WhyJoinCSIA. Control System Integrators Association Web site. [Online] Telesian Technology. [Cited:

December 11, 2009.] http://www.controlsys.org/WhyJoinCSIA.htm.

7. —. Mission and History. Control System Integrators Association Web site. [Online] Telesian Technology. [Cited:

December 11, 2009.] http://www.controlsys.org/about/mission_history.htm.






WHITE PAPER


8. Lowe, Robert. CSIA Registered Member Audit Preparation Guide. Control System Integrators Association Web

site. [Online] [Cited: December 18, 2009.]

http://www.controlsys.org/controlsysmembersonly/documents/CSIAAuditPreparationGuide-Rev3_000.doc.

9. Riordan, Frank. DMC Going for CSIA Certification. DMC's Web site. [Online] February 26, 2009. [Cited:

December 18, 2009.] http://www.dmcinfo.com/blog/articletype/articleview/articleid/11/dmc-going-for-csia-

certification.aspx.

10. Control System Integrators Association. Registered Member Program (Members Only). Control System

Integrators Association Web site. [Online] Telesian Technology. [Cited: December 18, 2009.]

http://www.controlsys.org/controlsysmembersonly/regmem_program.htm.

11. DMC, Inc. SharePoint Consulting Services. DMC, Inc. Web site. [Online] [Cited: December 18, 2009.]

http://www.dmcinfo.com/Services/Custom-Software-Engineering/SharePoint-Consulting-Services.aspx.

12. Control System Integrators Association. Best Practices and Benchmarks 2008. Control System Integrators

Association Web site. [Online] September 4, 2008. [Cited: December 11, 2009.]

http://www.controlsys.org/documents/FinalBPBVersion.pdf.

© Copyright 2014 DMC, Inc. All rights reserved. No portions of this document may be reproduced without prior written consent of DMC, Inc.

Specifications are subject to change without notice. All brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders

and should be treated as such.



WHITE PAPER ACHIEVING CSIA CERTIFICATION - DMC, Inc. Papers/CSIA... · 2019-09-12 · DMC Chicago...

Documents

Transcript of WHITE PAPER ACHIEVING CSIA CERTIFICATION - DMC, Inc. Papers/CSIA... · 2019-09-12 · DMC Chicago...